Lavender, WOW... your plan looks amazing! I am still deciding on what to put into the kitchen. I have always been drawn to clean lines but with warmth - I want the space to have some rusticity to it as well. I am hoping when we gut it that we will find the brick in good enough condition to keep it exposed. Another GW posted this picture and I just LOVE these floors. I had not considered porcelein/ceramic/stone floors because I really like the idea of something bullet proof (such as vinyl), but I dragged home a lot of samples for DH to look at and he is not thrilled about the idea of putting so much into the kitchen and then using vinyl on the floors. He loves this inspiration pic of the floors too so this is our new direction: This is what I am considering for the main kitchen for cabinetry - It would be a cove inset where the frame is 5/4 and the doors are 4/4 so the doors/drawers are recessed in - I will have the cabinets combined wherever possible so that there won't be any seams. I will also eliminate the rails between doors and drawers so that I can have extra space inside the cabinets - in other words, there will be a frame on the outside of the doors and drawers but no frame between them. The wood is called cerused oak, also known as limed oak... I saw a sample of it and fell for it (DH did too). It has sort of a worn old french look to it but also what I would consider an understated elegance. For the butler's pantry, I am thinking of something painted that will pick up on what happens in the kitchen. If I have any glass door cabinets in the kitchen, I will have the interiors of the cabinets painted with the same color as the butler's pantry cabinets. Ignore, the doorstyle, but I like this color that the cabinet company offers - it is called farm fresh: I want the butler's pantry to be a transition from the kitchen to the rest of the house. So the butler's pantry will be just a little bit more dressy than the kitchen. The kitchen will have what I would consider a "pro style" look to it but warm, homey, clean lines. I think what will tie the two spaces together will be doorstyle, flooring, and countertops. The floors in the rest of the house are a honey oak (which is not my favorite so I don't want to bring that in at all -- this is why I think painted cabinets in the butler's pantry will ease the transition of the honey oak floors in the rest of the house and the cerused oak cabinets in the kitchen). For the peninsula I am considering frameless cabinetry in a different doorstyle and having panels on the side and back of the cabinet that match this doorstyle but in the same cerused oak finish as on the other cabinet. Here is the doorstyle: I LOVE the arctic pear light fixture by Ochre but I highly doubt I can afford it, but I would like something decorative along these lines somewhere in either the kitchen, over the peninsula, over the sink in the butler's pantry or over the dining room table. It comes in several different sizes - obviously i wouldn't need anything as big as this but either way not sure it will make a difference as it is likely out of the budget My dining room looks like this... it is just on the other side of the butler's pantry and I am working toward having a cohesion between all the rooms - I like a lot of color - just love my orange chairs (they are from the 1940's and I recently had them reupholstered). I will paint the upper part of the dining room walls but will wait until after the kitchen is done so that I can tie in colors, etc. I am sure I have totally bored you by now, but thanks for looking!!

My house is old and tired and trying to be eclectic as I pump life-fluid into it. After living nearly 30 years in various military housing, dorms, barracks, etc., and drowning in shades of "off white," I was ready for C-O-L-O-R when we bought this place. My sewing room/ladies parlor is "Lilac Vapor," a magical shade of lilac. Our office/den/DH's dressing room is Picnic Table red for the bottom 3/4s of the walls, and camel on the upper quarter of the walls and ceiling. The bathroom is stark black and white with touches of deep, blood red. The bedroom is a lighter green, "Safari," and the mudroom is yellow. The living room and breakfast nook will be a sage green, "Key Lime Pie," and the kitchen and hall way (all open to one another) will be a 50% lighter version of the same green. All these rooms have, or will have, lovely crown molding with larger, detailed corner blocks. All the molding, baseboard and trim is white or off white. The bathroom crown molding will be black. DH is in charge of the four seasons porch. I'm sure it will be various shades of brown, barnwood paneling up to the chair rail, and sprinkled with camo. The room has 10 large windows, facing north, south, and west, and a door, so even the brown won't be overwhelming. He does have a good sense of style, just no color sense.

Maybe because they expect an appliance garage would be left open more often than a regular cab it only comes in a matching interior? I know I'm the only one in the family who seems to know how to close the appliance garage door. Also the only one who closes the pantry door, but that's a separate issue. If it's any consolation, usually matching interior is an upgrade. Hopefully you can get this resolved.

I was watching "Sarah's House" earlier this week (she's a Canadian celebrity designer) and I snorted when I heard her say that kitchen appliances should all match and come from the same brand. I love Sarah's designs but she obviously doesn't think too much about the functionality of appliances. I, too, have an aversion to matchy matchy appliances. My Miele DW, Capital Range and Kitchen Aid refrigerator (like yours) all have the same finish but different handles. They look great in my kitchen and more importantly, I love how they perform!